Posts Tagged ‘Fun Stuff’

I think I love doing children’s crafts about as much as anything I do and tomorrow, I will be showing the children at my church how to “engrave” styrofoam plates and make art prints. We (3/4’s of my family) played last night and I wanted to show you our images.

Suzannah’s Tom Sawyer
Ken’s HorseTheir first styrofoam printing session ever. Well, not for Suzannah, she did it at art camp when she was about 9 but she doesn’t remember. I still have her prints, though.

And my images…

My first (just drawing on the styrofoam to see what I could do. Never ever did I tell you that I was the best “artist” in the house. Now you know.)Second one of a whale. I added the black onto the print after I printed it.
The same whale. This time I printed a solid black on the paper and then, while the black was still wet, printed the orange whale plate on top. I think this turned out cool but when I tried it again, it wasn’t any good at all.

And the last one I did. This time I cut away large areas of the foam where I wanted it to be white. The other 1/4 of the family has yet to do one. If he does, I will show it also. He is quite a good artist.

If you want to do this, take a plate of styrofoam and draw with a pencil onto it. Using a brayer, roll ink all over the plate (you might could paint it on). Make sure there is plenty of ink on the plate. Lay a piece of paper onto the plate and press hard. The ink is sticky enough to hold onto the paper so it should not slip, but take care anyway. Use your hands, a printmaking barren or the back side of a wooden spoon and rub hard, harder than you think it should be. Lift a corner of the paper and see if you have a lot of ink on the print or if you need to rub harder. You can make maybe three prints from one plate. That hard rubbing wears out the styrofoam quickly. Try it, this is serious fun!

This weekend, a few wonderful friends sat and listened to me. And one took action. For this, I am very grateful. This is going in her thank you! (Maybe one very similar, anyway!!! There must be a secret to getting perfectly curved wire.)

The origami butterflies were done following a you-tube video by Michael LaFosse.

I did the mobile below a year or two ago. I thought I was so clever to use jewelry making supplies (i.e. beading wire, crimp beads, etc.) to refine it a bit (vs. tying knots). Using the twig was a little easier than the wire and this butterfly was a simpler origami pattern, but I loved the way it turned out, also.

If you know the secret to the flawless bending of wire, please let me in on it! I could also use a lesson in taking pictures of mobiles!

Used crayons this evening just to have something to do with my hands. This was done like the old fashion scratch art we did as kids, cover your whole crayoned drawing with black crayon and scratch it off. Then burnish the wax in the crayon until it is very shiny. I like the technique…looks like a block print. Sort of.

Can you believe I was able to place -ed on the word “crayon” and spell-check overlooked it??? Think I could use it in Scrabble?

I spend a lot of time looking at children’s crafts and doing children’s crafts with… children. A whole lotta time. I am inspired by what I see on the internet and then come up with a version I can do with materials on hand. Someday I am going to write a how-to book and I practiced my cutesy technique this weekend in anticipation of Someday. (I wish my calendar would tell me when Someday is!)

My daughter went to Camp Juliette Low pretty much every summer of her childhood and teen years. It is located in NW Georgia which has a geology of its own. I love that area of Georgia. CJL has a huge plane of flat rock that the girls gather on. Not that CJL girls play with dolls at camp, but I think it would be such imaginative fun to have little dolls, tiny cars and houses on that dimpled, bumpy terrain that they call “soft rocks.” (picture here) Maybe that is why I never went to camp…

These soft rocks are of a different sort. I followed a tutorial by artist/blogger Lisa Jordan at lil fish studios, here. It worked like a charm and I tried to tell her so on her blog but those new captcha’s they have will not recognize my typed letters. Very frustrating, Blogger.

Grainy picture taken by my son, Taylor, on his new camera at night with no light. Amazing.

Update- I didn’t give you very much info on this post. These soft rocks are covered in wool felt, that is what makes them soft. The rock is still inside. I think they would be great bases for my felted birds. I embroidered them with the rock inside, it isn’t difficult.

I do declare, this may be the longest I have neglected my little blog here. It is December and same excuse as in previous years. I have two offspring whose birthdays are in December and that along with duties and prep for that birthday we celebrate in less than a week now, have kept me out of the studio creating… If truth be told, I have done lots of little, relatively creative stuff like getting my husband to cut, drill and sand segments of yardsticks (I painted them all red because I didn’t have 27 vintage yardsticks) to make these yardstick stars (based on these vintage stars) with my kids at church.

I’ve been painting super heros for a young boy’s room. (no picture to show of that…)

I stitched up one Christmas card to send to a college friend of my husband’s (she sends the most wonderful hand cut cards each year with the stipulation she gets a handmade card back. I don’t want to be crossed off her list!) I love getting Christmas cards but when you don’t send them out, you don’t get many in return. Anyone else notice that? Cards have been low on my priority list for the last few Christmases, maybe if I start in August next year (and sell a painting to pay for postage!) I can send out the 60 to 70 cards to people who should be getting them.

And… I was so excited to find these little celebrating snowmen based on a picture in a Martha Stewart Living magazine from several years ago. These guys have been hiding out in my attic despite all my best efforts to find them (or urging my husband to find them…) for the last 3 or 4 years! They were made from covering styrofoam balls with paper clay and painting them iridescent white. I put them on a painted wooden block and if the wind doesn’t blow much, they stand upright looking like Macy’s Parade Floats! Love them!

Sorry for the blurry photos, but they are my specialty. I hope your merry making thus far has actually been merry!

There was time yesterday to play. I met with the First Friday Play group (I know it was the second Friday) and under the expert guidance of Joan Baragar, we played with paper collages. I drew a blind contour face and then cut and glued paper to create this.

I had so much fun making it, I came home and made another! Thanks, Joan! And MaryAnn Clayton for the most delicious pizzas!

That is white paint on the background, and I added a little pastel to warm up their faces. I now want to create something more realistic. I hope there is more time to play this week!

Spent way too much time making elephant cards (of sort, can’t really open them up and write on them, so I wrote on the back side of the ears!) and decorating envelopes for the kids in my Sunday School class. Just decided to have fun and enjoy the making.

I was very pleased last weekend to learn that I had received Third Place in Original Design at the 2011 Georgia Celebrates Quilt show. This was the second time I had entered this show (you may remember my blog post). I love the fact that I won a ribbon, wouldn’t trade it for the world, except that there were some very labor intensive, beautiful, traditional quilts there that perhaps deserved a ribbon more than mine. My take on this is that there should be a totally separate category for art quilts vs. traditional quilting. Original Design is maybe not definitive enough. But the judges still thought my binding “needs improvement!” Heck, they were lucky I bound it at all! That was the same comment I received about my first entry 8 or 9 years ago! I wonder if anyone has ever done a perfect binding!

See what I mean about beautiful quilts??!!!

And mine proudly holding its ribbon…

You know how you feel when you have something good happen to you and you want to share it with everyone? Having a blog is wonderfully satisfying way to share. Thanks for listening!